Experience of JVC DR-MH20?

SWINDONIAN · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom

I have owned a JVC DR MH20S since Mar 2005 - I have had nothing but problems with it. It has been repaired by Comet - costing them £210 (new hard drive) and been looked at them on other occassions too. Since I had my new Sky HD box (which is brilliant!) i have used the JVC recorder far less. But have just used it again and it is has locked up into the 'loading' flashing message and has been like this for 36 hours - there goes any extra christmas recording. My guarantee has run out. Any suggestions?

laserman · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom

Ebay ? or I`ll make you an offer.

andybray · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Well, it was the 22nd December and I reported the failed MH-20S to JVC. Perhaps not surprisingly they said it would not get swapped out til the New Year but the chap did say that they would most likely swap it for the new(er) DR-MH200S.

Indeed that's what happened on Jan 9th. Aside from the fact that it's 160Gb it looks just like the MH20S (and so can't see any difference between it and the MH30S). Clearly JVC have not had to expend much effort over the last 2 years designing any new DVD Recorders - probably have their work cut out just getting working replacements for the M10 and MH20. Actually, I couldn't really care if it was a 10Gb unit as I would not risk 80Gb let alone 160Gb of recordings to another disk failure.

Frankly I'm not convinced this one will last. There is a constant noise of disk access all the time it is powered up. But the JVC experience continues.

As a swap out unit there is only 90 days warranty on this and so I'll just keep my fingers crossed. Would obviously never pay to get one of these repaired out of warranty.

Andy

andybray · Member Joined: 02 Jul 2004

Well getting near to the end of the saga. As refurbished stock then I would only get 90 day warranty and so I was not going to take any chances. So I reported the disk noise and JVC determined it to be at fault but this time managed to locate a brand new MH-200S to replace it with.

The swap out happened today but frankly I've just had enough and so I plan to leave it "brand new in box" and sell it on ebay (in the UK). Anyone interested either check on ebay or you could flag an interest here.

Andy

victoriabears · Member Joined: 22 May 2004 Location: Canada

the jvc m100's I have, pal and ntsc work very well BUT are the pickiest on condition of media I have, out of Toshiba/Daytek and RJ.
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Karv · Member Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Location: United Kingdom

Hi all, noob here but bearing the foloowing nfo.

My DR-MH20 recently expired with the "LOADING" error. Its warranty was up back in May last year.

I did however contact JVC, and they have arranged for a replacement unit to be shipped to me for delivery tomorrow.

Free.

Without Cost . If yours dies, maybe try JVC first and ebay 2nd.

Karv

brittleware · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: United Kingdom

Well, after three years mine died two weeks ago - the loading message permanently on display. Following advice on various forums, I took the power supply board out (very easy) and replaced all the electrolytic capacitors (about three hours of slightly fiddly soldering) - and it now works normally!

So, if you have one, it can be made to work again, don't give up. Anyone wanting a list of the parts and where to get them, post here.

Good luck!

CURSE · Member Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: United Kingdom

HI
I also have a mh20 that failed last night with the loading error,I had it for over 2 years and up untill last night it worked.
I would be very interested in knowing which parts you replaced

cheers

brittleware · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: United Kingdom

I replaced all the capacitors on the power supply, identified them visually, bought the lot from Farnell. The PSU board is right on top after removing the lid, and you'll probably see one or two of the capacitors have a bulging top. Change the lot as caps have a limited life........ I've attempted to upload a word document with a list of the parts.

Good luck, I like my JVC so much more than the Philips we bought before I repaired the JVC![/img][/list][/quote]

jvc%20ps.doc

brittleware · Member Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Location: United Kingdom

Curse, I forgot to say that you might get away with changing just the caps. with visible damage - but if they blew others probably will soon. I found it useful when changing them to mark all the old ones with a felt tip on the top, so as they all came out in went nice shiny new ones.......

lordsmurf · Posted: Mar 28, 2008 16:12

My Panasonic ES10 recently blew -- all it needed was two new caps.
Same issue as the JVC, AMD motherboards, etc .

Cheap Chinese caps from 2004-2005 are to blame.
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CURSE · Member Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Location: United Kingdom

thanks brittlware I give that a try